Children of a Lesser God
Release date: 1986-09-13
Votes: 329
Genres: Drama, Romance
Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.
Reviews
Wuchak
***A school for the deaf on a Maine island with William Hurt and Marlee Matlin*** A teacher (William Hurt) moves to coastal Maine to work at a school for the deaf on an island where he becomes interested in a striking, but disturbed janitor (Marlee Matlin), who was once a student there. "Children of a Lesser God" (1986) is part celestial and mundane; beautiful and profane. Thankfully there’s more beauty. The Northeast coastal locations are wonderful and Hurt makes for a worthy protagonist while expertly pulling off a difficult role. Marlee Matlin is an exquisite revelation without which the movie would’ve failed. Everything builds to a stunning dramatic scene in the second half, which is expertly executed. Unfortunately, the couple hooks-up a little prematurely. More time should’ve been spent with the journey to consummation. Nonetheless, there are great moments here. The film runs 1 hour, 59 minutes and was shot in New Brunswick, Canada (Rothesay, Saint John & Beaver Harbour). GRADE: B
CinemaSerf
Acclaimed teacher "James" (William Hurt) arrives at a school for the deaf where his very "hands on" techniques rather shake the established order of superintendent "Franklin" (Philip Bosco). His pupils make good progress, though, as his methods start to encourage them to speak more and act with much more confidence amidst each other and amongst the talking community at large. Soon they playing a bit of second fiddle to the enigmatic "Sarah" (Marlee Matlin). She's now the school caretaker and has a reputation as a bit stand-offish and temperamental, but it turns out that she, too, is deaf and that she has also been in this establishment for over twenty years. Most people around the place just put up with her, but he determines to try to get to the bottom of her obvious frustrations and see if he can't help her deal with them. Initially a job of work for the man, this soon becomes something more visceral and intimate for both - and that tests the mettle of just about everyone. It's probably a testament to Matlee's strong and characterful performance here that I just didn't take to "Sarah" at all. I found the character - whatever her background, an angry and somewhat obnoxious creature who offered little for me to feel sympathetic towards. Not in a woe-is-me type of sympathy, just in a general sense of there ever being a likeable person under all the baggage. Their frequent rows and tantrums come across as increasingly contrived and by the end I thought the writing was on the wall for the pair as far as the plot was concerned and I didn't really care whether she spoke or didn't. I do think that shows her skill as an actress, and to an extent William Hurt's as a foil, but somehow this film resonated far more for what it meant politically and sensually at the time as a pice of profound innovation than it did dramatically on screen..
Movie Recommendation
Pretty Poison1968-07-18A troubled arsonist spins a tale of espionage to a captivating girl, who becomes enthralled and entangled in his dangerous fantasies, leading to unexpected murder and chaos that change their lives forever.More...
The Unholy Three1925-07-20Three sideshow performers form a conspiracy known as "The Unholy Three" - a ventriloquist, midget, and strongman working together to commit a series of robberies.More...
The Trip to Bountiful1985-12-20Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."More...
Operation Delta Force 3: Clear Target1998-11-23The anti-terrorist team Delta Force destroys a billion dollar cocaine stash, to the extreme displeasure of drug cartel leader Umberto Salvatore. To retaliate, he hijacks a stealth submarine and threatens to unleash a biological weapon with the power to kill everyone in New York City.More...
Work1978-08-07A young manager of a factory encounters a man walking along a road who says his family traditionally are servants to the manager's family. The manager offers him a job, and as he watches out for the other man's welfare, begins to see how the company mistreats its workers. The manager is challenged between his ethics and the pressure from others to protect his own interests as dire problems surface at the factoryMore...
Otello1986-09-04Based on Shakespeare's play, Verdi's opera depicts the devastating effects of jealousy, "...the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon". Believing Otello has promoted the fast-rising Cassio over himself, Iago plots to destroy both Cassio and Otello. Iago convinces the jealous Otello that his beautiful wife Desdemona is unfaithful, and that Cassio is her lover. Jealousy is followed by tragedy, then retribution, "Has Heaven no more thunderbolts?"More...
God Told Me To1976-10-22Devout Catholic detective Peter Nicholas investigates a series of murders around New York City, perpetrated by men who claim that God told them to do it. After the police department denies any religious underpinnings to the murders and suspends him, Nicholas begins to connect the murders to a messianic cult figure in town.More...
The Telephone Box1972-12-13A man gets trapped inside a telephone box and nobody is able to free him.More...
Armed and Dangerous1986-08-15After policeman Frank Dooley is framed for theft and loses his job on the force, he joins a security guard agency and teams up with inept former defense lawyer Norman Kane. When the two botch a job guarding a local warehouse, they begin to uncover corruption within the company and their union.More...
Conspiracy2008-02-15A Gulf War veteran with PTSD heads to a small town to find his friend. When he arrives his friend and his family have vanished and the townsfolk afraid to answer questions about their disappearance. He soon discovers that the town is owned and controlled by one man, and he doesn't like people asking questions.More...
Dirty 302016-09-23On the eve of a Kate's 30th birthday, she agrees to let her two lifelong friends, Evie and Charlie, throw her a party. But what's supposed to be a simple celebration becomes a wild who's who of past and present, and things quickly spiral out of control.More...
Eye of the Needle1981-07-24Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber the Needle, a ruthless German spy in possession of vital information about D-Day, takes refuge on Storm Island, an inhospitable, sparsely inhabited island off the coast of northern Scotland.More...
Clockwise1986-03-01School headmaster Brian Stimpson is obsessed with timeliness, order, and discipline. Brian misses his train after meticulously preparing a speech for an education conference. With no one else to turn to, he asks young former student Laura Wisely for a ride. Laura, upset over a break-up, agrees to drive him in her parents' car - which alarms her mother and father, who worry that she has run away with a married man and subsequently alert the police.More...
Prizzi's Honor1985-06-14Charley Partanna is a hitman who works for the Prizzis, one of the richest crime families in the US. When he sees Irene Walker, it's love at first sight. But he soon finds that she, too, is a killer for hire. Charley can overlook his suspicions, but he can't turn off his heart. And the couple must remember that even if they love each other, the Prizzis love only money.More...
Stratton2017-07-06A British Special Boat Service commando tracks down an international terrorist cell.More...
Girl Most Likely2012-09-07A failed New York playwright stages a suicide in an attempt to win back her ex, only to wind up in the custody of her gambling-addict mother.More...
Coal Miner's Daughter1980-03-07Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.More...
Interiors1978-08-02When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughters are laid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata, a successful writer; Joey, a woman crippled by indecision; and Flyn, a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman, his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate…More...
L'Emprise2015-01-26"L'emprise" is the story of a drama, adapted from the moving book-witness "Acquitted", by Alexandra Lange. The story of a mother of four children, which is found in March 2012 in the dock of the foundations of Douai for the murder of her husband. How does a woman manage to kill the father of her children with a knife? During the three days of the trial, panting narrative takes us into the daily life of Alexandra, a mother that the society has failed to protect, neither she nor her children from the control of a monster she has loved. Through this incident that made headlines and upset the public, an event movie that raises the question of the balance of justice. Will she be heard?More...
My Best Enemy2006-03-10When a neurotic hotel manager fires a maid for allegedly stealing a laptop, her son swears revenge and begins to expose his deepest secrets — only to regret it after falling for his daughter.More...
Similar Movies
Madeline
1998-07-10Horrified at the prospect of her beloved school being sold, a young French girl named Madeline uses her wit and craftiness to attempt to save it, making an unlikely new friend in the process.All About Us
2007-10-01Two Hollywood filmmakers attempt to find Morgan Freeman in Mississippi and convince him to star in their next movie. When life gets in their way they soon discover what matters to them most.The Last Song
2010-03-31A drama centered on a rebellious girl who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.Compulsion
2008-05-04A beautiful young woman with every privilege except freedom. A despised older man with nothing except his obsession. Are they the key to one another’s salvation? Or are they destined to destroy each other and themselves? Having just finished a degree at Cambridge, Anjika Indrani has the world at her feet. However when her father announces that he intends for her to marry the son of his business associate, Anjika is angry and distraught at the unfairness of it. Then help is offered from an unlikely corner. Her father’s sinister chauffeur Don Flowers proposes a way out… but it comes at a cost.White Palms
2006-01-15Having suffered as a boy under a brutal Communist-era coach, champion Hungarian gymnast Miklos moves to Canada years later in search of a new start - only to find himself unwittingly perpetuating the very same cycle of abuse among his own pupils.The In Crowd
2000-07-19A mentally disturbed young woman takes a job at a posh country club and falls in with a clique of wealthy college kids where she's taken under the wing of the clique's twisted leader, who harbors some dark secrets too terrifying to tell.Set Me Free
1999-02-12A coming-of-age tale centered on Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.To Each His Own Cinem...
2007-10-31Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.The Line, the Cross &...
1993-11-13A singer struggles to dance well in rehearsal with her band. A power outage leaves her alone in the studio, reviewing her life, when a mysterious woman appears through the mirror and gives her a pair of Red Shoes. The cursed shoes dance beautifully, but endlessly. The singer is drawn irresistibly into the fey world beyond the mirror, where she must redeem three magic symbols from the mysterious woman in order to obtain release from the cursed shoes.Tendaberry
2024-01-21When her boyfriend returns to Ukraine to care for his ailing father, 23-year-old Dakota must navigate the precarious anxiety of holding onto the past and forging her future in the midst of her South Brooklyn universe.The Holdovers
2023-10-27A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.Me Before You
2016-06-01A small town girl is caught between dead-end jobs. A high-profile, successful man becomes wheelchair bound following an accident. The man decides his life is not worth living until the girl is hired for six months to be his new caretaker. Worlds apart and trapped together by circumstance, the two get off to a rocky start. But the girl becomes determined to prove to the man that life is worth living and as they embark on a series of adventures together, each finds their world changing in ways neither of them could begin to imagine.Stupid Young Heart
2018-10-12When carefree, young Lenni and his girlfriend find themselves expecting a child, he ends up looking for a role model in all the wrong places as he becomes involved with local right-wing activists.The Chronicles of Pol...
2014-09-29A surreal portray of the abandoned Russian settlement Pyramiden on Spitsbergen from the point of view of a traveller lost in space and time.Posthumous
2014-10-04After false reports of his demise put him and his work on the map, an artist decides to continue the charade by posing as his own brother. Soon, a reporter enters his life and has a profound effect on him.A Matter of Size
2009-04-27Four overweight friends from the Israeli city of Ramle are fed up of dieting and the dieting club they belong to. When Herzl (155 kilos), the main protagonist, loses his job as a cook and starts working as a dishwasher in a Japanese restaurant in Ramle he discovers the world of Sumo where large people such as himself are honored and appreciated. Through Kitano (60 kilos), the restaurant owner, a former Sumo coach in Japan (who is supposedly hiding from the Yakuza in Israel), he falls in love with a sport involving "two fatsos in diapers and girly hairdos". Herzl wants Kitano to be their coach but Kitano is reluctant - they first have to earn their spurs. "A MATTER OF SIZE" is a comedy about a ‘coming out’ of a different kind - overweight people learning to accept themselves.Into the Blue
2017-02-14Thirteen year old Julija and her mother flee their abusive household to find refuge on an idyllic Croatian island where Julija grew up. Emotionally scarred, Julija is desperate to reconnect with her best friend, Ana. But Ana is in love with a boy and Julija is no longer a priority.Another Prayer
2013-11-08Images from the past are projected onto the left-behind spaces of the present in a poetic act of haunting and resurrection as the filmmaker tries to recreate the memory of her grandmother.The Elephant Man
1980-10-09A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.Swept from the Sea
1998-01-23The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.